Protecting high priority workloads in a virtualized datacenter

Abstract

A method includes running a plurality of virtual machine workloads across a plurality of servers within a common power domain, and setting an operating level for each of a plurality of hardware resources within the common power domain in response to receiving an early power off warning from a power source that supplies power to the common power domain, wherein the operating level for each of the hardware resources is determined as a function of the priority of the virtual machine workloads that are utilizing each of the hardware resources.

1 . A method comprising:
 running a plurality of virtual machine workloads across a plurality of servers within a common power domain; and   setting an operating level for each of a plurality of hardware resources within the common power domain in response to receiving an early power off warning from a power source that supplies power to the common power domain, wherein the operating level for each of the hardware resources is determined as a function of the priority of the virtual machine workloads that are utilizing each of the hardware resources.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein priority for each of the plurality of virtual machine is an independently determined scaled value. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the operating level for at least one of the hardware resources is set to a shutdown in response to determining that the at least one of the hardware resources is not utilized by a high priority virtual machine workloads. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining, for each of the virtual machine workloads, an extent of utilization of each of the hardware resources utilized.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the operating level for a given one of the plurality of hardware resources is a function of the priority of virtual machine workloads utilizing the given hardware resource and a function of the extent of utilization of the given hardware resource by the virtual machine workloads. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the operating level for a given one of the plurality of hardware resources is a function of the 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein setting an operating level for each of a plurality of hardware resources further comprises:
 determining an amount of power remaining;   selecting one or more of the highest priority virtual machine workloads that can be completed with the amount of power remaining; and   setting a low operating level for each of the plurality of hardware resources within the compute node that are not running the selected virtual machine workloads.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the priority of a virtual machine workload is manually input by a user. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the priority of a virtual machine workload is determined dynamically. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further including:
 determining that the priority of a workload has changed.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein determining that the priority of a workload has changed includes reducing the priority of the workload in response to determining that the resources executing the workload are in an idle state. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein determining that the priority of a workload has changed includes increasing the priority of the workload in response to determining that the resources executing the workload are in a high utilization state. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 migrating at least one of the highest priority virtual machine workloads from a first server to a second server running another one of the highest priority virtual machine workloads, wherein the priority of each individual virtual machine remains associated with the individual virtual machine independent of the migration; and   setting the operating level of each of the plurality of hardware resources within the first server to shut down in response to having migrated the highest priority virtual machine workloads off the first server.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 shutting down all non-critical hardware exclusively associated with non-critical workloads in response to a loss of power; and   migrating virtual machines with high priority workloads into the smallest set of physical hardware possible.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein setting the operating level of each of the plurality of hardware resources includes setting a low operating level of hardware resources sharing a power domain with a high-priority virtual machine workload, but not participating in execution of the high-priority virtual machine workload. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the power domain is a multi-server chassis. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the low operating level is an immediate hard shutdown. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein setting the operating level of each of the plurality of hardware resources includes setting a high operating level to each of the hardware resources participating in the execution of a high-priority workload. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the high operating level includes disabling processor throttling. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving an alert from an uninterruptible power supply, wherein the alert is generated by the uninterruptable power supply in response to a loss of power from a primary power source.